Questions to Ask When Adding a Cloud Computing Component

The CIO of a biopharm firm advises IT managers to question everybody and everything before making a commitment to moving some or all of your IT into the cloud. Security, change management and sources of data should be discussed and fully understood before a service-level agreement is made.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.-The
promise of cloud computing is pretty darn alluring. You can ostensibly get your
workload done everyday and not need to buy software or hardware; capital
expenses start shrinking; maintenance and head count costs are lower; scalability
is there if you need it; and so forth.

However, as in journalism, there are two sides to every story. On the other
hand, there are legitimate concerns within cloud computing regarding
application quality, portability and security; control over how the data is
delivered; certifications and standards; and so forth.

Thus, a lot of forethought and due diligence must go into making the move from
a conventional data center to one that's up in the sky somewhere-and possibly
on another continent.

"When a company decides to add cloud services to its IT, the company has
to open the kimono a little bit; there's a lot of trust involved," Peter
Young, vice president and CIO of
biopharmaceutical provider MedImmune, told the audience in the opening keynote
of SaaSCon 2009 here at the Convention Center.

MedImmune is a 21-year-old biopharmaceutical company that went public in 1991
and is up to $1.3 billion in annual sales. It was acquired by AstraZeneca in
2007 for $15.6 billion. Headquartered in Gaithersburg,
Md., it produces flu vaccines, antibodies
and other products.

Young, who directs the global activities of MedImmune's IT business, recently
made the move to add a cloud component to his company's multinational IT
division.

Young laid out a list of key questions that IT managers should ask when
considering such a move. A lot of IT decision makers are now considering
adding cloud components, pushed by anxious C-level executives and boards of
directors concerned with controlling costs in the worldwide recession.

"First of all, we're talking about exposing services-whether they be internal
or from outsides sources-in a way that brings value," Young said.
"Data services, application services, network services, hardware, storage,
other services-that's what's being offered in the cloud today as a package. In
the old ASP [application service provider] days, you got one thing at a time,
and it got complicated and siloed.

Young said IT managers considering a move to the cloud should ask the following
questions, for starters:

How portable is the technology and data across international borders?

Who is backing the service provider?

Is the provider certified, and by whom?

Where does the data originate?

How is the identity management process set up?

Who manages physical security at the provider's facilities?

How is change management handled?

What happens to your partnering model?

Question any assumption you hear, Young said.

"What happens as my data crosses international boundaries and different
jurisdictions?" Young asked. "Regulations will face you at every
turn, and you need to know that your service provider has accounted for that.

"IBM endured a painful transition from
the hardware to the software-and-services business," Young said.
"Being a multinational company, it was a rough time. Cloud computing is in
its early stages but will face many of the same issues.

"Cloud computing is not an optional disruptor. This will become standard
very soon. We can now provision a server in 8 minutes; it's all moving very
fast. Because we have no closed standards at this time, this could be the
downfall for some early adopters, but if they're aware of all these questions
and ask them, they'll be better prepared," Young said.

SaaSCon continues through April 2.

Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz